The thing was, Tony and Sam weren't in the same circles. Tony jumped between the nerd kids and the party goers, while Sam stayed firmly with his small circle of friends, that didn't really fit into anything.
Still, somehow Steve and Tony knew each other, and Sam and Rhodey did, Natasha and Bruce had this weird friendship thing going on that no one understood, and occasionally their circles mixed; sat together during lunch, stopped to talk when they saw each other.
But so far Tony and Sam didn't have any real interaction and Sam kind of hated it. Tony was cute, way too young to be in college, but as far as Sam could tell, he could also keep up with Steve and Bucky's bickering and he talked science with Bruce like no one else could and Natasha plainly adored him.
It was a dangerous mix, and Sam found himself wishing more often than not that he could get it together and just talk to Tony.
But he was a bit intimidated by his brilliant mind and his joyful laugh and beautiful brown eyes and...Sam had it bad.
So bad in fact that even his damn bird picked up on it.
Redwing wasn't one to mingle with other humans, he kept his distance when Sam was with the others, but lately that had changed.
Sam hadn't even noticed at first, it was Bucky who eventually pointed it out to him.
"Hey birdbrain," he said to him one day during lunch. "What's up with your pet bird?"
Sam looked around, trying to find Redwing, but he wasn't sitting in his usual perches and Sam frowned.
"What do you mean? Where is he?"
Buck snickered and then pointed at the other end of the table where Tony, Rhodey and Bruce where sitting.
Sam needed a second to understand that it was in fact Redwing sitting on Tony's shoulder and accepting little crumbs of bread Tony offered up to him.
"What's he doing?" Sam muttered under his breath and Bucky laughed.
"Lost control of your bird, Wilson?"
"You get your damn prosthetic to work, then you can talk to me about my bird," Sam snapped back and that had Steve laughing who so far had only listened.
Bucky grumbled something into his food, but dropped the matter and Sam was glad for it.
He continued watching Tony and Redwing the rest of the break; Tony luckily didn't pick up on it. He was too busy being enamored with Redwing to notice anything else.
When they left the table Sam expected Redwing to come back to him, but the bird stayed with Tony and soon they were out of sight. He didn't return to him until that evening and Sam felt itchy the whole day. He couldn't remember the last time Redwing hadn't been there to watch over him and it felt wrong.
The next day went along the same lines; Redwing was practically glued to Tony and by now Sam had an inkling what the damn bird was doing.
Tony continued to pet Redwing, feeding him most of his lunch and he cooed at him whenever he got the chance, and while Redwing barely tolerated Sam touching him, he seemed more than fine with this.
It took Sam nearly a week before he snapped.
It was a warm day, and they were all lying outside on the grass, Tony and Bruce a bit apart from the group and obviously talking about an experiment.
Tony was lying on his back, hands behind his head, eyes closed and Redwing had settled down on Tony's stomach, accepting the occasional stroking and even chirping at Tony when he did it.
Sam knew that it was irrational but he was jealous of his bird.
"Maybe it's time you finally talk to him," Steve muttered when he followed Sam's gaze.
Bucky perked up at that, obviously only half a second away from making a snarky comment, when Sam got up.
"You know what, I think you're right," he said and that shut Bucky right up. With a small sweet smile into his direction he walked towards Bruce and Tony.
Bruce saw him coming and said something to Tony before he got up and traded places, easily settling in with the rest of the group.
Tony lifted his head, careful not to move too much, so that he wouldn't dislodge Redwing on his belly.
Sam sat down next to him and started with "Hi."
"Hi?" Tony unsurely replied and Sam pointed at the bird.
"His name is Redwing."
"He's yours?" Tony asked and attempted to sit up fully, but Redwing pecked him lightly and Tony dropped back down.
"Kinda? Not sure how our relationship works. I guess I'm more his."
"I'm sorry he has been hanging around me lately. I didn't mean to steal him away."
"I know that. I guess he did it for me," Sam said with a smile at Redwing who had now gotten up and gazed at Sam with a crooked head.
"It's fine, I got the message now," Sam told him and Redwing made an inquiring noise as if he wanted to say 'You sure about that?'
Sam laughed at that and then Redwing was up and gone to his usual perch in a tree nearby.
"Eh, so what just happened?" Tony asked and took advantage of the fact that Redwing was no longer resting on him.
"We've been hanging with the same crowd for some time now," Sam started and Tony nodded slightly. "I never got around to talking to you and I guess Redwing wanted to make sure I did eventually."
"Why?" Tony asked, obviously surprised.
"Because I think you're cute," Sam rushed out and Tony stared at him.
"I...can take that back if you're uncomfortable with that?" Sam eventually asked when the silence stretched on.
"No one ever called me cute before," Tony admitted and blushed slightly.
He was adorable.
"Their loss," Sam said instead of voicing his previous thought out loud and Tony ducked his head a bit.
"So you wanted to talk to me because I'm cute, huh?"
"And because you are really smart and seem like a funny guy and Rhodes is speaking very highly of you."
"You sure as hell know how to flatter a guy," Tony laughed and Sam smiled.
"Plus, I think my bird has been grooming you, so, yeah. Maybe we should talk."
Tony looked up at Redwing and then back to Sam.
"Maybe you're right."
Instead of doing just that, Sam settled down more comfortably next to Tony, stretched out just like him, and they enjoyed the sun for a bit before Tony suddenly said "So if this works out, how do I thank Redwing? A dead mouse? A living mouse?"
It startled a laugh out of Sam and he figured trying couldn't hurt anyone. Redwing had earned it after all.